The Visual Appeal of PSAs

The audience of the image is drivers, particularly parents who drive. This info is found by seeing how the male and female in the drivers and passenger seat have a child in the back seat, as seen through the rear view mirror.

The context is to show the viewers what will happen if they find themselves in this situation.

The image is to persuade drivers to take care and watch the road whilst they are driving.

Argument/Persuasion Elements:

The pathos of the image is that the parents killed another child because of distractions, such as cell phone usage. The pathos is especially strong due to the placement of the child being hit and the child reflected in the back seat and how they align.

The ethos in the image is presented after the text, when it says ekburg.ru, which is the Russian city where this image was posted. City officials endorsed this image.

The logos in the image is the text at the bottom proclaiming that the number of driving accidents increases during the holiday season.

The visual argument claims that parents who drive distractedly do not think of both sides, that if it happened to their child they would be furious at the distracted driver, and they are hypocrites for doing the same thing.

The reason the claim exists is because of the amount of accidents that occur during the holiday season, however, there is no evidence to back up the claim.

The assumption that underlies the claim and reasons is that parents are too distracted when driving.